by our College Data Analytics TeamSan Jose State University is a public institution in San Jose, California enrolling 27,601 undergraduates. It accepts 85% of applicants and has an on-time graduation rate of 69%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #35 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 1%), and its Value for Your Money analysis rates it a Fair Price.
Source: IPEDS 2025; College Scorecard July 2026; College Factual rankings 2027. Data as of: July 2026.
San Jose State University ranks #35 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 1%.
College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.
San Jose State University was awarded 1634 badges in the 2027 rankings.
San Jose State is ranked #35 out of 5,159 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation!
San Jose State is also ranked #6 on the Best Colleges in California list.
See all of the rankings for San Jose State University.
San Jose State University has an acceptance rate of 85%, which makes it somewhat selective. Make sure it’s not the only school you apply to, even if it’s your school of choice. Whether you get in or not will largely depend on how you compare to other applicants.
Learn more about San Jose State University admissions.
The student to faculty ratio at San Jose State University is 25 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1. This may indicate that some of your classes will be larger in size than they would be at other schools. However, upper level classes will probably be smaller.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at San Jose State University is 44%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.
San Jose State University has a freshmen retention rate of 87%. That’s a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It’s also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is typically four years. This rate at San Jose State for first-time, full-time students is 69%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at San Jose State University.
In the current academic year, there are 27,601 undergraduates at San Jose State.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at San Jose State University.
The typical net cost at San Jose State is $17,140. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $9,730 | $10,114 | $12,099 | $15,102 | $22,862 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid. Note that the net price is typically less than the published price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of San Jose State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At San Jose State, approximately 20% of students took out student loans averaging $6,429 a year. That adds up to $25,716 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 3.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you’ll be able to pay back your student loans. Get more details about paying for San Jose State University.
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from San Jose State University with a bachelor’s degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $78,988 in their early years. This is good news for future San Jose State University graduates since it is 60% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.
See which majors at San Jose State University make the most money.
San Jose State University is a public institution located in San Jose, California. San Jose is a great location for students who prefer city over country life. Get more details about the location of San Jose State University.
Contact details for San Jose State University are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0186 |
| Phone: | 4089241000 |
| Website: | www.sjsu.edu |
| Wikipedia: | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose_State_University |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/sanjosestate |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/#!/sjsu |
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 28 majors graduated from San Jose State University. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.
| Most Popular Majors | Completions | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Disciplinary Studies | 9,936 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 1,853 | $50,312 |
| Library & Information Science | 846 | $48,739 |
| General Psychology | 541 | $33,851 |
| Computer Engineering | 455 | $102,792 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 411 | $57,440 |
| Computer Science | 323 | $69,074 |
| Social Work | 287 | $64,256 |
| Health & Physical Education | 259 | $37,077 |
| Data Science. | 252 | NA |
17,848 students took at least one online class at San Jose State University.
Online courses are a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
Learn more about online learning at San Jose State University.
Curious how schools stack up against San Jose State? Pit them head to head with College Combat, a free interactive tool for comparing colleges on the features you care about.
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References